Rise of the Beast
by Hyliian
Summary: A short one-shot describing how the Alex from my other story, "Consuming Direct Control," came to be known as the Beast by the Justicar Order.


**Note: **_This is the Alex from my main crossover, "Consuming Direct Control." Reading that one is not necessary, but that's the timeline this is set in. Alex is around 160 at this point._

* * *

The "crown jewel of the galaxy." Thessia. So far, Alex Mercer was not impressed. It was beautiful, he supposed, if one cared about gleaming skyscrapers and incredibly lush reserves dotting the landscape between here and the horizon. It had been a bitch chartering passage here, since smuggling was such a big issue thanks to the eezo-rich environment, but a handful of consumed asari later and he knew exactly what to say and where to go to ensure a timely arrival at the "beating heart of galactic love."

_Galactic love. Why did I come here again?_

Oh yes. Because he was bored. That was the only reason he did anything anymore, really; a never-ending quest to alleviate the growing monotony of his life. That, and because unless he wanted to make friends with the krogan, only the asari had a lifespan that could match his own. Well, not exactly, since he was pretty sure he was immortal and asari only lived a few thousand years at most, but it was as close as he was likely to get.

Alex strode across the docking bay as if he'd been born here (which, in a way, he had been, since the form he was wearing was born and raised here on Thessia) and passed the security checkpoints with the ease born of a century of breaking and entering places he really shouldn't be allowed into.

He always felt so weird as an asari. He'd only used one as a disguise a handful of times, since some part of him that was still the original Alex Mercer baulked at walking around with breasts. He'd done a stint with Eclipse for a few years before he got tired of it, and ever since he'd tried to avoid using females (even if asari considered themselves genderless) as a disguise.

He knew the laws of Thessia like the back of his hand, and so, obviously, he decided to break all of them.

As he leapt onto a building and scaled it at the customary ninety degree angle that made his pursuers pause in shock, he had to wonder just why the asari were so finicky when it came to shoplifting. It wasn't like he'd murdered the shopkeeper (although he had, and was currently wearing her skin) or anything.

He leapt from the building and hit the ground running, leaving a nice crater in the road for them to remember him by, and before he had a chance to fully adjust to being on ground level, he found himself hit by what felt like a MAC truck and slammed into the nearest wall.

_What the hell was that?_ Alex shook his head and looked up to see a rather scantily-clad asari surrounded by the familiar nimbus of biotic power strolling almost casually up to him. The woman he was currently masquerading as offered him a name for her.

Justicar.

_Well shit._

Less than three hours in and he's already managed to tick off the asari's personal fanatic police force. A new record. He pushed himself back to his feet and kept an eye on the approaching Justicar. From what the asari within him knew, the Justicars were supposed to be incredibly powerful biotics that adhered to a _very_ strict moral Code.

Alex cocked his head and let a grin pull at his lips. That kind of power and knowledge would come in handy, he was sure. With a mental flick, he dismissed the asari's skin and let his usual hooded façade shimmer back into place. The Justicar paused in her walking, tensing as she stared at him warily, and Alex used that split moment of distraction to attack.

The claws crawled from his arms and he slammed into the Justicar with every ounce of his strength, sending them sprawling out into the street and cracking the pavement with the unfortunate asari's skull. An assault round glanced off his shoulder and he didn't even glance up; he simply pulled his armored form on to protect him from further hits while the Justicar mustered enough energy to hit him with another Throw. It would have worked, too, if he didn't already have his claws buried to the wrist in her shoulder.

They both went flying and Alex rolled once before slamming her into the ground, spearing her through the middle with his claws and letting his consuming tendrils crawl across her frame and dissolve her from the inside out. He stood smoothly, cracking his neck and turning to the dumbfounded asari commandos a few yards away with assault rifles trained on him.

The Justicar had been a matriarch. How delicious. That much life experience was hard to get all at once; Alex grinned. As he leapt at the shocked asari, claws outstretched, he wondered where he could find another one.

* * *

The second Justicar tracked him to Illium, where he'd taken a break to throw off the latest batch of mercenaries sent to retrieve the illusive Monster of Manhattan. She Threw him off the railing and he plummeted several hundred stories until he landed on his back in the cargo shipping lanes, blinking dazedly up at where he'd fallen from.

He jerked himself upright, feeling his body snap back into position with an audible _crack_, and shook his head to clear it. It had been decades since he'd taken a fall like that, and he eyed the crater he'd made upon impact with amusement. He glanced up in time to see his attacker floating down on a biotic cloud, so to speak, and he narrowed his eyes. He knew that uniform.

_Another Justicar? How kind of them to save me the trouble of hunting them down. _He let one arm reshape into a whipfist and snatched her out of the air before slamming her to the ground, making a much smaller (but bloodier) crater a dozen yards away. He stood and dusted himself off before approaching the broken asari, standing over her and folding his arms.

She sucked in a wheezing breath and Alex just shook his head. Honestly, he'd thought asari were supposed to be intelligent. "…beast… we shall return you… to the Void."

Alex grinned and crouched at her side, letting his arm reform into claws. He ran the flat of one of his claws across her cheek as gently as possible, flashing teeth from beneath his hood. "A beast, am I?" He jerked his wrist and watched as the impaled asari choked once, twitching. He consumed her where she lay, straightening and wiping off his jacket. He smirked and flicked inhuman blue eyes to the security cam watching him intently. "I suppose I am."

He put two fingers to his temple and saluted the camera, grinning.

_Long live the Beast._

* * *

**A/N: **_Got the idea to write this from one of my anonymous reviewers named "Hmmm". So, thank you anonymous Hmmm! __  
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